What to do, what to do (e36 money pit)

benneh

benneh

benneh

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Well, my 1996 328i saloon needs a new engine (death by nakasil), some welding (arb mounts need to be ground out and replaced..), uprated front brake disks/pads, rust sorting on the rear passenger side arch, and some sort of issue with the rear drivers side handbrake, probably just a matter of freeing up and adjusting.

I wont be replacing the engine myself, I can manage the front and rear disks, and re-assembling the ARB after welding. So all in it will most likely cost circa £1500, including my sourcing, and an indy garage fitting the new engine. I paid £1200 for the car a few months ago, it's quite nice (I'll post pics from my main pc later), Morea green, full M3 kit (barring clear rear lights and indicators afaik) white leather interior, 96k with fbwsh etcetc, generally in fairly good condition. It's not mint, but I can definitely improve it over time with small revamps (wheels refurbed/stone chips on front bumper/bonnet). Tax and MOT are both up atm too.

So I don't know what to do. I could get rid of it and spend circa £2500 on a coupe and be done with it, risking of course another wad of cash. Or I could stick with what I know, replace the engine and thrash it around for a year. What to do?.

Moral of the story; bargain beemers, buyers beware ;p.
 
Agreed, sell it if you can. Some cars are just perpetual money pits, I've owned a few in the past...
 
i love bmw's and have had a few but trust me, sell it.
sell it as a shell, should get around £500 for it... put that 500 towards another car.
So many cars for sale at the moment you can get plenty of decent cars around the 2k mark
 
Replace the engine yourself, its a days work tops for a direct like-for-like swap. Changing the discs and pads is a couple of hours max, and can be picked up for £200~ all round (I paid that for EBC grooved and EBC ultimax pads on the 325i).

Handbrake I guarentee will be a "replace the bits inside the drum" job, new cable, actuator, backing plate, springs, and some random mintex shoes will cost less than £40, and takes maybe half an hour to fit.

ARB mounts are your biggest concern as its not a job I could personally do DIY, if they need grinding out then you need somewhere that can do that without bodging anything or making a mess.

Leave the rust until you have time/cash to get it sorted if its just cosmetic.
 
paradigm said:
Replace the engine yourself, its a days work tops for a direct like-for-like swap. Changing the discs and pads is a couple of hours max, and can be picked up for £200~ all round (I paid that for EBC grooved and EBC ultimax pads on the 325i).

Handbrake I guarentee will be a "replace the bits inside the drum" job, new cable, actuator, backing plate, springs, and some random mintex shoes will cost less than £40, and takes maybe half an hour to fit.

ARB mounts are your biggest concern as its not a job I could personally do DIY, if they need grinding out then you need somewhere that can do that without bodging anything or making a mess.

Leave the rust until you have time/cash to get it sorted if its just cosmetic.
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There's no way I could swap the engine. I have no mechanically minded friends. Well, saying that, there's a possibility, but it would be a weekend job and most likely stretch out for an eternity. Plus I'd need access to a crane, and it's way beyond my level of competence. to be honest if i were replacing it myself I'd be trying to source a 3.0 m3 lump and bits. Brake/arb reassembly wise I should be fine with a manual and a bit of help from the old man.

The ARB mounts are shocking, I'll get a pic, but I've never seen anything that bad before, totally rusted/ripped off the car. They'll be done by a ye olde fabricator/welder who's done a lot of work on beetles for us, it'll be a case of grinding some out of a scrap chassis and welding them in. Rust wise I'll most likely leave it for 6 months. It's not too bad cosmetically, but it's through to the rear wing bit inside the boot, and there's deep rust down at the bottom where the door closes. So it will no doubt need a complete new panel/wing.

My heart tells me to keep the silly green car, my wallet tells me to buy a sport coupe and retain some resale value :D.
 
You could buy another 328 and strip the engine from that. Then you could sell the bits to recoup your losses.

Im fairly sure that its not a straight swap for the m3 lump into a 328.

If you are looking for a 328 by the way, e-mail in trust..... :D
 
Afaik it's not a simple swap, but certainly not the most difficult job in the world. A lot less hassle than the 3.2 evo swap. Either way that's out of the window lol. Manifold/filter/ecu are the way forward at the mo, possibly US spec m3 cams. Think I'm goign to get a solid quote for the welding and whatnot and have a think. If it's going to cost more than £1500 I'll sell it as it is.
 
Don't give your brain away with the old engine ! :D - the ECU in other words.

Do you know if the car has EWS or not?
 
Decision made. I'm getting rid, hopefully someone with some kind of welding skill can salvage it, otherwise it will be stripped for its fairly minty mint bits no doubt. Either way I'm headed for sport coupe land :D.
 
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